IPs not impressed with P-Noy Sona, proceed with their own State of the Indigenous Peoples Address

LANTAPAN, Bukidnon - Close to a hundred Indigenous Peoples representatives from Luzon and Mindanao gathered at the Apu Agbibilin Community Center in Brgy. Songco listened to President Benigno Aquino’s first State of the Nation Address (SONA) and found it wanting. “Just as in past SONAs by previous presidents, indigenous people were hardly mentioned,” said Robina Poblador, a B’laan from Saranggani province. “The biggest threats we face in our territories, such as mining, were conspicuously absent.” [slideshow id= 2] The IP participants noted that the SONA demonstrated a marked absence of the issues and concerns confronted ...

Lumads gather to forge own agenda

LANTAPAN, BUKIDNON—Some 100 indigenous peoples (IP) leaders representing lumad communities all over the country gathered here to forge an IP Agenda for the newly inaugurated Aquino administration. Dubbed as the State of the Indigenous Peoples Address (SIPA ’10 kicked off yesterday at the Hall of Peace, Sungco, Lantapan town, here in Bukidnon. The opening coincides with the first State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III. “With a new president at the helm, the IP leaders feel this year’s SIPA is also a good opportunity to draft plans of action to address our issues and concerns and ...

Pambungad na Pananalita

Magandang araw sa ating lahat. Tayo ay nagtipon-tipon muli ngayong araw na ito para sa ating taunang SIPA o State of Indigenous Peoples Address. Kung ating babalikan, ang SIPA ay inumpisahan noong 2008. Karamihan sa inyo ay naroon noon sa Toril, Davao. Ang SIPA ay nag-umpisa bilang reaksyon sa mga pahayag ng dating pangulong Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo sa kanyang SONA o State of the Nation Address. Taon-taon, pawang di makatotohanan ang isinasalarawan ni Arroyo ang kalagayan ng mga Pilipino, lalo’t higit ng mga mahihirap, na karamihan ay nasa kanayunan, at kabilang dito ang mga katutubong Pilipino. Pawang kasinungalingan ang mga pahayag ni Arroyo ...

T’bolis decry government inaction, harassment by Consunji guards

Koronadal City – Indigenous Peoples belonging to the T’boli tribe in Brgy. Ned. Lake Sebu, South Cotabato decry resent government inaction of their almost two decade-long that they (will) be allowed to live peacefully inside their ancestral territories. Datu Victor Danyan, Chairperson of the T’boli-Manubo Sdaf Claimants Organization (TAMASCO) speaking in the dialect said that “the government is hurting us more by not listening and by not respecting our decisions not to allow mining or any other so-called development projects in our ancestral land”. Tension gripped anew in sitio Datal Bonlangon, Brgy. Ned, when armed men with high powered rifles believed to ...

Issue more CADTs! – Says the Philippine Indigenous Peoples

Today, we congratulate the 454 Aeta families in Floridablanca, Pampanga for receiving their Certificates of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT). Finally, they now have a legal instrument that should effectively protect and safeguard their ancestral land. The awarding of the CADT in Pampanga looks very nice in picture and sounds very good in the news. Reality check This has long been overdue and ironic at the same time. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) in her State of the Nation Address in 2001, promised to issue one hundred (100) ancestral domain titles by that year. Nearing the end of her term, it is very disheartening for the ...

IPs from Both Ends of the Islands Shout ‘SIPAin si Gloria!’

Quezon City, Philippines –Just as essential to the Indigenous Peoples is the early morning for farming, so is their choice to be the earliest today to voice out the realities of their lives before the SONA of President Gloria Arroyo presents her own version of reality. “We have heard Arroyo before make the SONA, and we have not heard her tell the truth about the situation of the Indigenous Peoples,” says Peter Duyapat, an Ifugao leader. At seven in the morning, over a hundred IPs from all over Luzon who are convening the SIPA 2009 (State of the Indigenous Peoples Address) in ...

Time for a New Mining Law: Stop the Rape, Plunder of Our Natural Resources

TIME FOR A NEW MINING LAW, STOP THE RAPE AND PLUNDER OF OUR NATURAL RESOURCES Today, the Alternative Mining Bill will be filed in Congress to replace the existing anti-Filipino and foreign friendly Mining Act of 1995. It is high time the Mining Act of 1995 (R.A. 7942) be scrapped that has become so disadvantageous to the the welfare of Philippine economy and the Filipino people. Mining revitalisation program – a land grabbing tool The government’s mining revitalisation program, sadly became a land grabbing tool by mining companies, encroaching and displacing indigenous peoples and rural poor in the ...

SIPA News

Indigenous peoples gathering set to submit list of demands in response to Pnoy SONA

Lantapan, Bukidnon – Close to a hundred Indigenous Peoples representatives from Luzon and Mindanao gathered at the Apu Agbibilin Community Center...

IPs not impressed with P-Noy Sona, proceed with their own State of the Indigenous Peoples Address

LANTAPAN, Bukidnon – Close to a hundred Indigenous Peoples representatives from Luzon and Mindanao gathered at the Apu Agbibilin Community Center...

Lumads gather to forge own agenda

LANTAPAN, BUKIDNON—Some 100 indigenous peoples (IP) leaders representing lumad communities all over the country gathered here to forge an IP Agenda for...

Pambungad na Pananalita

Magandang araw sa ating lahat. Tayo ay nagtipon-tipon muli ngayong araw na ito para sa ating taunang SIPA o State of Indigenous Peoples Address. Kung ating...

More Stories

SIPA Archive

Indigenous Peoples declare GMA SONA a sham

Quezon City, Philippines–Over a hundred leaders and representatives of Indigenous Peoples, attending the State of the Indigenous Peoples Address (SIPA) at the University of the Philippines in Diliman from July 26-28, 2009, denounced Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address as a sham which does not reflect their daily realities. Read more